2024 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials Night 7: Caeleb Dressel comes through in 50m free, 100m fly

The pace ratcheted up to the red line on Night 7 of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Swimming Team Trials presented by Lilly.

Not only did the evening session kick off with three consecutive finals, but the first of them was the fastest event in swimming.

The men's 50m freestyle "splash and dash" starred Caeleb Dressel, as the defending Olympic gold medalist secured qualification to his first individual event for the Paris Games. Chris Guiliano, meanwhile, joined a rare club of swimmers to qualify for the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle events at the same Trials.

That was followed in short order by Regan Smith rounding out her wildly successful Trials meet with another big win.

Kate Douglass and Dressel, swimming a double on Night 7, also featured in semifinals to round out the third-to-last night of Trials at Lucas Oil Stadium.

See below for event-by-event recaps, highlights and results from Indy.

Men's 50m freestyle final

With a smile, a pump of his fist and 21.41 seconds of all-out power, Caeleb Dressel is officially heading to the Paris Olympics as an individual swimmer.

He'll defend his Tokyo gold medal in the 50m freestyle. Dressel started fastest of the field and never relinquished the lead in the single-lap swim.

In a razor-thin race for second, Chris Guiliano touched ahead of Matt King by 0.01-seconds to clinch his third individual event at the Paris Games. He'll swim the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle events, along with both the 4x100m and 4x200m free relays.

Dressel would have to catch his breath, with the semifinals of the 100m butterfly later in the evening.

Women's 200m backstroke final

Regan Smith is alone atop the American backstroke mountain. After winning and breaking the world record in the 100m backstroke earlier in the week, Smith won the 200m backstroke in 2:05.16 to increase her slate of Olympic events to three.

"I'm incredibly proud of this performance," Smith said of her Trials meet, which also included a win in the 200m butterfly. "I think it's a night and day difference versus 2021 to now. I ran out of gas a bit at the end of that last race, but it's been a great week for me."

In a tight duel for the second Olympic place, Phoebe Bacon edged out Claire Curzan by seven-hundredths to finish runner-up in the event, repeating her result from the previous Olympic Trials.

Men's 200m IM final

With Michael Phelps, a four-time Olympic gold medalist in the 200m IM, looking down from the commentary booth, a pair of University of Texas training partners produced a classic finish in the third final of the night.

Carson Foster charged late in his final freestyle leg to overtake Shaine Casas at the wall, but in the end both swimmers were able to celebrate as Olympic team members.

"This means everything," Casas said of qualifying for his first Olympics. "Since I was a kid this was all I dreamed about. And now I don't have to pretend to be an Olympian. I am an Olympian."

Men's 100m butterfly semifinals

Caeleb Dressel is beginning to roll off the victories. Less than 45 minutes after winning the 50m free final, Dressel set the top time of the 100m fly semifinals at 50.79 seconds.

He'll swim for the right to defend his 100m fly gold medal in Paris.

How the field shakes up behind Dressel, though, is anybody's guess. It might even feature backstroke specialist Ryan Murphy, swimming butterfly at Trials for the first time in his stellar career. Murphy finished third in the much faster second semifinal to qualify fourth for the final.

Women's 200m IM semifinals

Kate Douglass is well on her way to rounding out a successful Trials. She'll swim in the 200m IM final in an attempt to qualify for her fourth event at the Paris Olympics.

Alex Walsh, meanwhile, has put herself in good position to make a second consecutive Olympic team. She won silver in this event at the Tokyo Olympics.